Thai troops deployed to cope with Cambodian threat

Thailand vowed it was ready to respond militarily if attacked by Cambodia after its smaller neighbor issued an ultimatum for Thai troops to pull back from disputed border territory by midday Tuesday.

Thailand moved more troops to an area nearby late Tuesday, but strictly as a defensive measure,said a senior Thai army officer.

"The troops on both sides have retreated slightly" but remained only "about 100 meters (yards) apart," said Gen. Viboonsak Neepan, the Thai Army commander for the region.

"We have sent more troops to be stationed near the area but only enough to resist (an attack).We will not attack first," Viboonsak said. He did not specify how many troops were sent.

Despite increasingly heated rhetoric - including a description by Cambodia's prime minister of the contested land as "a life-and-death battle zone" - hostilities did not break out, although the two countries disagred on what had actually happened and who backed down.

A Thai Army spokesman had earlier denied a claim by a Cambodian general that Thailand's soldiers had moved back.

Thailand's prime minister said his country's troops had been on their own territory all along.

"If there is a problem, we will use eaceful means with an emphasis on negotiations," said Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. "I want to insist that we will use peaceful negotiations. We will not be an invader. We will not use violence." Somchai is also under intense political pressure at home from anti-government militants seeking his resgnation.

The dispute was a continuation of one that arose between the two neighbors earlier this year over the land around Preah Vihear, an 11th century temple and landmark long claimed by both countries but awarded to Cambodia by the World Court in 1962. Sovereignty over some of the land around the templehas not been clearly resolved.

Tensions flared July 15 after UNESCO, the U.N. agency, approved Cambodia's bid to have the temple named a World Heritage Site. Cambodia deployed about 800 troops to the border, and Thailand sent some 400 soldiers.

Both sides pulled back most of their troops in late August but it is not clear how many remain in the area and at other spots along the disputed border. They have been having talks to end the tension.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday morning that Thai troops had tried a day earlier to advance into Cambodia's territory but Cambodian soldiers "waved them back and said, 'If you want to die, keep coming."'

"They must withdraw," Hun Sen said during a speech at an economic conference in the capital, Phnom Penh. "I have set the timeline for them to withdraw by 12 o'clock (0500 GMT)."

Cambodian army commander Brig. Gen. Yim Pim later said all Thai troops had retreated about 90 minutes ahead of the deadline and were back inside their camp about half a mile (1 kilometer) from the contested territory.

"The tense situation has now eased," Yim Pim told The Associated Press.